WASHINGTON - January 8 - The nation’s largest grassroots peace organization decried President Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq by sending more troops, which according to news reports he will announce in a nationally televised speech this Wednesday.

“How many more U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians will die before Bush realizes we cannot ‘win’ an occupation of Iraq?” asked Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action. “Bush is effectively holding our troops hostage to his failed policy of war and occupation, and he is now prepared to send an additional 20,000 or more troops rather than admit he’s wrong Since polls show that a majority of Iraqis already approve of attacks on U.S. troops, how can adding more troops possibly help? Americans understand it’s time to bring the troops home, not send more to kill and die for Bush’s delusional stubbornness.”

Martin also emphasized the unanimous agreement of U.S. intelligence agencies, in a classified National Intelligence Estimate leaked to the press in September of 2006, that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has increased the number of terrorist groups worldwide and “made the overall terrorism problem worse," according to the secret study.

“President Bush says the war in Iraq is central to the war on terror, but in fact it is the central recruiting device for anti-American terrorist groups – and now Bush is going to further exacerbate the terrorist threat by expanding the U.S. military presence in Iraq.”

“The question now is, how will the Democratic Congress respond?” added Martin, whose group is participating in a major anti-war rally in Washington later this month to continue pressuring Congress. “While they sound skeptical of the plan right now, if they refuse to curtail funds in any way and allow Bush to do what he wants, they will become his accomplices in this disastrous war. And the American people will not accept that.”

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